Psychological and Emotional Qualities Necessary for the Study of Constructive Awareness

Psychological and Emotional Qualities Necessary
for the Study of Constructive Awareness

1. POSITIVE CHANGE
   The student requires a strong yearning to change from being a subconsciously controlled individual, who is the slave of unco-ordinated, negative habits, to a positive, consciously controlled human being, skilled in the use of the self.
2. KINESTHETIC ACCURACY
   The desire to re-educate oneself about the faulty use of the mind and body must be there.  The intellect and the kinaesthetic sense must be brought into harmony.  This entails going through a conscious thinking process that will re-educate the subconscious mind and lead to greater co-ordination and well-being.  When learning to change, the intellectual idea does not usually match the kinesthetic feeling.  The ’right’ thing usually feels ‘wrong’.
3. DEEP AND DYNAMIC THINKING
   Thinking power must be cultivated and become rigorous enough to weigh correctly the relative importance of matters, and/or the validity of statements.  Constructive awareness demands a truer perspective.  It seeks to show her how to see herself and other things as they really are.  The student should attempt to become free of the quagmire of the doubtful opinions and beliefs of others.  Clarity of thought must be achieved to avoid being stupefied by habitual and unreasonable social conventions.
4. DETACHMENT
   A steady attitude of inner detachment is required, because throughout the whole process of change the student is asked by the teacher to consider deeply and deliberately what are the impeding psycho-emotional habits that must be rooted out and discarded to ensure continuous progress.  Rigorous reasoning and a light emotional attitude are needed, not only if the truth about one’s misuse of the self is to be realised, but also to face the task of deeply changing and work with it with staggering repetition, no matter how palatable or unpalatable the revelations of such deep change may be.
5. DETERMINATION
   A quiet and reasoned determination – not the face-grimacing, fist-clenching, muscle-tensing type – must be adopted.  Despite occasional setbacks, never to accept ’failure’ and resort back to habitual, negative behaviour patterns; but simply to realise that the past is behind you and the rest of your life starts now, now now, now, now……………  You can make a fresh start by using the power of the eternal NOW, the ever-present MOMENT.
6. BALANCE REASON AND EMOTION
   At every stage in the process of learning constructive awareness, where reason and emotion come into conflict, to stop and consider if one is habitually displaying unreasoned, emotional bias.  The process of conscious change is very powerful and complex intellectual and emotional problems can arise.  In examining these problems, it is very common for the individual to be influenced too much by deep-seated, negative emotions and ill-informed opinion, which cause resentment when evaluating the alternative ideas of other people.  In such cases, the tendency is to cloud – and even block completely – clear thinking with a confused, emotional fog.  Whether we like it or not, positive, unprejudiced emotions must be cultivated to disperse the fog and bring about clarity of thought.

This article was first published in Rock ‘N’ Ruminations by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here:  FREE DOWNLOAD